Iris Johansen - Chasing the Night

He didn’t answer.

“Did they punish you for helping Natalie?”

“Yes.”

“Badly?”

“Yes.”

“But then you waited and started planning again.”

“Yes.”

Kelly looked at Eve. “So don’t tell me about this poor defenseless kid. His pattern is as strong as Catherine’s. If he wants to do it, he can help us.”

“Could you help us get out of here?” Eve asked Luke.

He nodded.

“Will you? Do you want to do it?”

He gazed at her without answering. Then he said slowly, “I don’t know. You come in here and tell me things that are confusing me. I don’t like to be confused. I don’t know if I can trust you.”

“And I don’t know how to make you trust us,” Eve said. “But it’s important that you do. Can’t you see that you have to trust someone?”

“No.”

Of course he didn’t, Eve thought. He hadn’t been able to trust anyone but himself for his entire life after he’d been taken from Catherine.

“We can help each other,” Kelly said. “We’re not like Natalie. You felt sorry for her. You don’t have to feel sorry for us.”

“I didn’t feel sorry for her. They were just hurting her, and she was like me. I couldn’t leave yet, but I could take her away from them.” His lips thinned. “I want to take everything away from them.”

“Good. I wouldn’t mind being taken away from them,” Kelly said dryly. “Can we start with that thought?”

“Why? You’re not like me, and I don’t feel sorry for you.” He leaned back against the wall and was once again lost in the dimness. “But I may need to use you to help me get away. I was able to steal some money from Mikhal, but I don’t think it’s enough. I don’t know much about what things cost. But I don’t think I can wait any longer. I think he’s coming to the end.”

“End?”

“Rakovac will kill me,” Luke said simply. “He’s always told me that it was coming. I just never knew when.”

Eve shivered as she thought of a child living forever under that constant chilling threat. Kelly must be right. Luke was indeed a survivor. “Then if you think that we can help you, by all means use us.”

“If I can trust you.”

“Well, you can’t fool around trying to decide,” Kelly said impatiently. “Make up your mind.”

“What can we do to help, Luke?” Eve said. “She’s right, we don’t know how much time we have. Rakovac may be on the way. What do you need from us?”

Silence. “You’re…strangers,” Luke said. “I don’t really know who you are or where you came from. I don’t know you.”

“Then we’ll tell you anything you want to know.” Eve leaned back against the wall. “But it goes both ways. There are things we want to know about you, too. Will you answer questions?”

“Maybe.”

“That’s not fair, Luke,” Kelly said.

“Maybe,” he repeated. “Take it or leave it.”

Kelly settled back on her heels. “You’re going to learn that you can’t get away with that kind of-” She stopped. “Go ahead. Ask your questions.”

Luke hesitated, obviously thinking about it.

Let Kelly handle it, Eve thought. She was neither diplomatic nor particularly sympathetic. It was Catherine to whom she gave her sympathy and loyalty. But she was young and smart, and Eve could see that she was reaching Luke on his level.

“Well, what do you want to know?” Kelly demanded. “Anything.”

“Stop pushing me.” He thought again. “One thing. That word…What is…brainwashing?”

The first thing that Joe saw when he arrived at the farmhouse was the blood.

A huge smear of red on the stones in front of the doorstep.

Fresh blood.

Shit.

Eve.

He drew his gun, jumped out of the car, and moved to the left of the door that had been left a little ajar.

He kicked it open and dove into the room and to one side of the door.

No shots.

Darkness.

Silence.

His heart was beating hard, fast. God, he was scared.

“Eve.”

No answer from the darkness.

There was something liquid and sticky running against his wrist that was braced against the floor.

Blood?

Eve?

He had to know. He carefully reached up to the light switch on the wall beside the door. He hit it, then rolled sidewise behind the couch.

No shots.

The room was empty.

Except for the woman huddled beside the front door, covered in blood.

He was kneeling beside her in an instant.

Not Eve. Natalie.

And a few feet away, the body of Kelsov.

That didn’t mean that there weren’t more bodies in the bedrooms. Eve and Kelly Winters were still not accounted for.

He was on his feet and moving.

“Quinn,” Venable was behind him in the doorway. “Don’t go-”

He ignored him.

No bodies in either bedroom.

Nor in the bathroom.

“What the hell happened here?” Venable asked.

“How do I know?” Joe was looking around the room. “No sign of a struggle here. Natalie and Kelsov were killed outside and dragged into the house. Where’s your agent who was supposed to have been here?”

“He’s not answering his phone.” Venable paused. “We haven’t found him yet.”

Not a good sign.

Dammit, he should have been here. “I should never have left her alone.”

“She wasn’t alone. You thought she was safe.”

Wrong.

“She might be okay, Quinn.”

“And she might not.” Get a grip. Stop being negative. Think. He went back into the bedroom. Eve’s suitcase and belongings were still in the room.

Including her gun.

He didn’t recognize any of Kelly Winters’s belongings, but her duffel was still here.

Joe ran out to the barn.

No one there either.

Venable lifted his brows inquiringly as Joe came back into the living room.

“If they left here, it was in the clothes they were wearing. They took nothing with them.” His gaze raked the room. “Kelly didn’t even take her computer. It’s still there on the kitchen table.”

“Then maybe we’d better go and talk to the neighbors and see if they’ve seen anyone-”

The computer.

He strode over to the table and opened the program Kelly had been working on. Rakovac’s surveillance report. Catherine’s phone calls from Rakovac.

Patterns.

Dates. Names. Notations. Nothing that he could figure out.

A yellow note pad was beneath the computer.

Kelly’s scribbling all over the top sheet. A graph with Catherine’s name on the top of each peak and below it another name.

Czadas.

He tensed. “Holy shit.”

Venable was at his side. “You found something?”

“Yes, and I think Kelly found something.” His index finger ran over the graph, outlining the peaks. “Dates. Catherine’s name. Other names. Then city names.” He punched his finger down. “Then this at the end of the graph.”

Czadas. Yes!

Joe tore off the sheet of paper and thrust it at Venable.

“Czadas. What do you know about him?”

Venable’s brow furrowed as he tried to remember. “Georgian revolutionary. Been on the scene for years. Takes every opportunity to strike out at the Ossetians and Russia. Nasty character, but not important enough to deserve special attention.”

“He might have been important enough to deserve Catherine’s attention. See how fast you can find out more about him. Where does he live?”

“I don’t remember.”

Joe remembered the name scribbled on top of the graph. “Sergriev?”

“Maybe.”

“Find out.” He headed for the door. “Get us a helicopter. I want to be there in a hurry.”

“You think Eve was taken there?”

“I hope she was,” Joe said. “It’s the only logical answer. I’d like to think that she went there on her own, but that would be too good to be true. Kelly thought she’d found out where Luke was being kept. Rakovac threatened Eve several times on the calls to Catherine. If he was going to put an end to his cat-and-mouse game, then he might want to include Eve on his agenda.” It was all supposition, but it was all he had, and the alternative was making him panic.